Revealing Photos
by CellarGangGirl
Summary: Rumors are going around Hogwarts, and it looks like Lily's the last to know. What has Sirius done? M for a slightly apprehensive reason, people.
1. The Rumour Mill

AN: I started this story about a year ago, but it got abandoned due mainly to the fact that I was starting school. However, I was going through my old stories the other day, and there it was, a gem in the dirt. So, I'm having another go at it. Hope you enjoy!

Disclaimer: You all know I'm not the fabulous Ms. Rowling, lets be real here. Honestly, my writing's not that great.

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><p>Lily Evans wouldn't have known that this day would be much different than any other by the start of it. When she woke up, nothing felt different - as people liked to say they sensed things when a day was going to go awesomely awkward. She got dressed and huffed a bit when she failed to locate a hairtie. Leaving her hair to fly about her shoulders, she grabbed the bag in which her class supplies rested and took off down the stairs of the Gryffindor girls' dormitories.<p>

Potter and his gang were not to be avoided in the common room, but that was hardly a tell-tale sign of disaster - sometimes they were too hungry in the morning, and left before she came down for the promise of food in the Great Hall. A few girls giggled when she walked into the round room, but her fellow Gryffindor's often laughed at her for many reasons, especially the girls. They liked to question her sanity. Something about her refusal of Potter's advances made them think she was a nutter, apparently. She shook her head at them as she exited through the portrait hole.

The trip to the Great Hall was quiet, as it was every morning that Hestia woke and left before she did. She frowned as she reached the open doors of the Great Hall. There were the self-named Marauders, sitting next to Hestia. The girl was chatting up one Sirius Black, who Lily happened to know Hestia fancied. The girl didn't know Lily knew, and Lily could honestly say she wished she didn't. Oh, the things one heard when waking up at one in the morning for a quick run to the loo. Lily shuddered a bit before going to sit down.

It was no surprise that nearly every eye landed on her as she sat next to Potter, nor was it a surprise that whispers broke out amongst her fellow students. It was quite an oddity for her to willingly be anywhere near him. However, he sat by Hestia, and Lily always sat with her best mate. Besides, she knew what most of the students were whispering about, but she had stopped blaming him for Severus' betrayal. He couldn't be held responsible for the Slytherin boy's actions, just as Lily herself couldn't. That road led to madness.

She helped herself to breakfast, muttering a 'thank you' as Potter poured her a glass of orange juice, her breakfast beverage of choice. He nodded, setting the jug of juice down near her goblet and digging back into his own hearty breakfast. She listened idly to Hestia and Sirius' playful banter - they were debating over whether or not England would win in this year's Quidditch World Cup - as she awoke slowly, eating her munch drowsily. Potter stayed unusually quiet as Remus and Peter spoke of the test in Charms tomorrow - apparently Peter was having a spot of trouble with the illusion charms. Lily had mastered them a week prior by dressing in her muggle clothes every day of the week and using the charm to make it look as though she were wearing her uniform. It didn't help Peter that he was all over the gaff, notes from all classes lying randomly in his bag. She could see a tic forming in Remus' temple.

Lily's attention was drawn back to Hestia and Sirius as their argument was becoming quite heated. She noted - as the other three boys' attention was drawn as well - that the fight had somehow(details were beyond her at this point) morphed into who would beat the other - the Falmouth Falcons or the Chudley Cannons. Sirius was rooting for the former, while Hestia adamantly defended the latter's new style. James sighed before speaking up.

"Please, you both know that they'll never get far enough to face each other." He stated in a condescending tone, resulting in heated glares tossed toward him from the two. Lily sighed, the knowledge of the fact that Hestia would be complaining about it to her every spare second of the day making her wish she had stuck in bed this particular day.

"What do you think, Evans?" The question shocked her; the fact that it had come from Sirius shocked her more. He rarely addressed her, and she point blank gawked at him for the fact that he had asked _her_ a question about _Quidditch_.

"Uhmm... I don't know. What do you think James?" She forwent calling him 'Potter' as she tried to shift the spotlight off of herself. The boy only stared back at her, and she realized that using his Christian name had been rather counterproductive. In fact, now even _more_ people were staring at her and she shifted nervously. "Well?" She insisted, occupying her blushing face with the meal in front of her. The boy shook his head slightly, unruly hair flopping around.

"Ahm. I'm rooting for the Appleby Arrows." He stated nervously. "They were sponsored for new Silver Arrows during the off season, and they've always been good at strategizing... I think they could really make it far this year." He gained a bit of enthusiasm as he spoke about the team, and Lily was happy as the attention averted to him. That is, of course, until Sirius butted in once more.

"Yeah, but they're so far behind. I mean, _you've_ had the new Silver Arrow longer than they have. Where are they going to get with that kind of ruddy sponsoring? What do you think, Evans?" He questioned her again. She sighed. It was obvious she wouldn't be getting away from his persistent questioning. She wondered for a moment whether he was doing this to purposefully embarass her. He knew that, as a muggle-born, she hadn't been raised in a Quidditch-friendly environment, and therefore knew next-to-nothing about the different teams. She was glad that the question was local and not global, because she didn't know anything about the national teams.

"Maybe... Er, Puddlemere United?" She answered with the only other team she knew, though the question in her voice was barely masked. Sirius outright snorted, clearly displaying his disdain for her choice. The blush returned to her cheeks tenfold, she could feel them burning as a few snickers were heard up the table. As Hestia shook her head, Lily tilted her head down, letting her hair form a curtain to hide her flaming face. Potter shifted next to her.

"It is possible. They've got Moontrimmers, and they've had them longer, so they'll definitely be in better control. They got pretty well done over last season by the Falcon's, but they're always brutal - it's in their slogan. And besides that, Puddlemere's got a new captain this year, I hear. Haven't let out who it is, but he could lead them to victory." James supported her, tucking some hair behind her ear. She sent him a gaze that she hoped screamed 'thank you', deciding to overlook the hair gesture this time. He nodded slightly before returning to his nearly-finished breakfast. Sirius snorted again, clearly stating that he thought hers was a poor choice. "You asked." She mumbled, going back to her own food.

It was as she sat in a seat near the back of the Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom that she realized something was off. People were actually turning in their seats to look at her - before quickly turning back around when they realized she saw them. Aside from that, Potter held her usual seat out for her like a gentleman, before sitting himself next to her. Remus went around to sit on her other side, and she was quite grateful for it when she saw the disappointed look on Sirius' face as he sat next to Potter. She was sure he'd been planning some form of further humiliation for her, and she thanked Remus for his help quietly as class started.

This year's professor, Arianna Dugley, was a stout woman. She'd worked at the Ministry before applying for this job. They said she planned to take a year off before returning to the Ministry, who'd offered to take her back. In the short time she'd been here, she'd discovered that practical demonstrations were not to be had at Hogwarts.

Despite the fact that her brother was an Auror with James' father - she'd gushed the first few days of class - and there were many clippings passed around Hogwarts about her stunning work with magical creatures, she'd been attacked by every single beast and fiend she'd shown them. Of course, that was before she'd learned to stick to a more theoretical teaching approach. Some people whispered that the position was cursed, as they'd never had the same DADA professor for more than a year. Had this been a normal school, Lily would've scoffed at the rumor. She wondered sometimes, though, if it weren't true. The teachers taught perfectly well, but accidents and incidents inevitably lead to their retirement. In her first year at the school, Professor Paddyshire had actually been _forced_ to retire due to the rather gruesome loss of his right leg. It had occured in a seventh-year class halfway through the second semester. Headmaster Dumbledore had filled in until the end of the year.

Back to the present issue, though. Potter was being far too kind today. She'd been with him since breakfast in the Great Hall,(while it really hadn't been all that long) and he had yet to ask her out. This was a particularly worrying issue, and she wondered, frightful, if he'd gotten bad news from home or the like. His father's profession _was_ a very dangerous one, after all. At the front of the class, Professor Dugley was beginning a lecture on safety measures when near dementors. Lily had already read the chapter, and decided to ask the question nagging at her. She scribbled it down on the piece of loose parchment she'd intended for her notes and pushed the paper into James' space. He took it, a look of surprise on his face as he slid it closer to himself before scratching down a reply and scooting it back to her.

**How's everything with your family?**

_Quite alright. Any particular reason you ask, Evans? It's not like you to not pay attention in class._

He slid the note quietly back to her. Relief spread through her at the knowledge that everything was okay with his family - really, she shouldn't let herself get so worked up, she was going to have a nervy fit one of these days. However, that still left the question of why he was being such a gentleman and why everyone kept looking at her. She didn't know how to broach those subjects, though. She sighed, scratching down a flippant response about him not acting like himself that he clearly accepted, for he shrugged and flipped the paper over, putting it under his own untouched stack for notes.

A half hour went by as she sat, for the most part bored with Professor Dugley's rather lackluster lecture before Lily looked up at Sirius, who was suddenly taking notes at a furious pace, a sure sign that something was bothering him. The boy could put on as valiant of a front as he wanted, but Lily knew that something was up, and she was going to find out.

She sighed. Not only had her hunch about Potter's family been - thankfully - wrong, she had actually gotten further from an answer to why girls and boys were still snickering at her expense. Well, they must not have been whispering about the Severus incident at breakfast. They wouldn't have dragged something like that out, especially since it had happened last year. She pulled out a fresh sheet of parchment, pushing herself to take notes in spite of the fact that she had rather extensive ones on the desk in her dorm.

Not five minutes later, Professor Dugley finished her lecture and gave them their homework, leaving the remainder of class for the students to squander as they wished. The promise of extra work kept the noise to a dull roar, but Lily was nevertheless distracted by the outrageous number of giggles coming from the group of Ravenclaws in the row in front of them. Although James and Sirius weren't working on anything - they were leaning back in their chairs, debating about Quidditch again - she figured it would be safest for her to question someone she knew a little better.

"Hey. Do you know why in Merlin's name everyone's giggling at me?" Remus looked up from his work at her whispered question. His eyes rested on the Ravenclaws - who giggled once more - before they jumped almost guiltily to James and Sirius, before finally resting on his work once more. It was as much of a clue as she'd get from him. Her eyebrows raised a slight bit.

"Alright then. If you can't tell me that, then why is Potter being such a gentleman today?" She questioned, recieving the same nonverbal answer, though his eyes stayed longer on the Ravenclaws. So they _were_ connected. She sighed before returning to her own work. She got about half of the questions done before she was distracted again.

"Hey Evans." She looked up at Sirius. A crease formed in her brow as she noted that he was still speaking avidly with James about Quidditch teams and brooms. Casting her eyes about the room, the emeralds landed on the only person looking at her - a Slytherin named Connie Barker. She was a year below Lily, and a righteous little fifth year at that. With her pitch black hair and ice blue eyes, she held herself up to the highest standards for Slytherins - ie. she'd never so much as glanced Lily's way, as far as the redheaded witch knew.

"I was just trying to answer number three; I thought you might be of some help." The girl stated snidely, as though she was privvy to some private joke. Which, judging by the rest of the class' reaction, must not have been all that private. Generally, when Slytherins and Gryffindors started verbal wars, the other houses stayed out of it. There was no such pretense at these words; the group of Ravenclaws in front of her dissolved into laughter, along with most of the other students. Lily threw an alarmed glance at Remus after glancing at question three. It said something about being stuck to the ground, which of course made no sense at all to her.

Remus was tossing panicked glances over her shoulder at his mates. She turned her gaze on them. Sirius was outright smiling - obviously laughing at her - while James was looking at her, easily ten times more panicked than Remus. This didn't promise good for the Marauders. Had he asked her out in some humiliating way that she hadn't seen yet? She quirked an eyebrow at him and was flabbergasted to see him shrink back a titch from her.

"Do you know how to get back up, or are you perpetually stuck there?" Another Slytherin girl continued the line of jokes Lily couldn't understand. If it was an embarassing date proposal, what did Lily being on the ground have to do with it? She was becoming bloody frustrated, wishing with a fiery vengeance that she understood the joke. She noted the fact that a small scowl was forming on Potter's lips as the jokes continued, all while Sirius actually let out a snort of laughter. Lily figured she was about to go ballistic when another Slytherin girl opened her mouth to - Lily was sure - insult her, but she was saved by the bell, which thankfully chose that opportune moment to ring loudly.

She stalked, annoyed, after James and his gang to their next class - Care of Magical Creatures. They were headed outside today, to the Quidditch pitch, where they held class when there was a particularly hazardous creature involved. Lily sighed, realizing that this class was likely to turn out just as their last class had. Nobody even bothered to fake an 'ooh' or an 'ahhh' when they found out the creature of the day was a dragon - albeit, a small one. Although there were only two Slytherins in this class - both boys - she could see their brains working hard to come up with a good dig like the ones in last hour - or at least, she assumed they were good. It was hard to tell, when you didn't know what had started it all.

She noticed out of her peripheral vision that James was trying to slink away from her, slowly but surely. Luckily, the perfect opportunity to keep him near came as Professor Kettleburn asked for volunteers to demonstrate how you should always take on a dragon - if you had to, that is - with a partner. After all, he certainly couldn't show them with his few remaining limbs. She grasped James' hand in her own and raised them high, much to his surprise. He was still staring at her hand as she declared loudly that they'd do it. Not that she'd needed to - everyone else had nervously moved back a step at his request.

Kettleburn smiled brightly, and she dropped Potter's hand, walking forward to relocate to the spot the professor had indicated. James, apparently still a bit shocked, took a bit getting to his own designated place. They closed in on the young dragon together, James at the head and she at the tail. She assumed the creature must've been paying close attention to James, for it didn't notice her creeping up from behind to hit it with a quick, yet strong, _'Stupefy'_. The beast fell, unconscious, to it's side, and the professor clapped loudly for them, commenting briefly on how well they worked together. This sent the students - who had been clapping, as well - into a buzzing state of whispering, which Lily tried and failed to hear. They sent eyes at her as she followed James to where he stood with his fellow Marauders.

"I swear on Godric Gryffindor's legacy, Remus. If you don't tell me..." Her whisper was cut off by the boy in question, who shook his head shortly. He grasped her upper arm and pulled her a bit away from James and Sirius, who were watching the dragon and laughing, respectively. She drew her attention back to the sandy blond holding her. He shook his head again.

"It's not something I can tell you, even if Sirius hadn't made me promise I wouldn't. You'd have to be _shown_. And the only way for you to possibly see it is probably to corner James. He could sneak... _it_ from Sirius, but you'll never see it any other way." Remus told her vaguely. So it was _Black_ that was causing this mayhem, not Potter. While that was a tiny relief at first, she was soon much more worried than she had been before. There were a number of ways Black could embarrass her, most of which were worse than the usual humiliation by date proposition. The boy in question was looking at them now with narrowed eyes, obviously suspecting that Remus was telling her something he wasn't supposed to. She rolled her eyes and huffed, stepping back up to James' side.

The hour went by at a maddeningly slow pace as the sun rose higher into the blue sky. Lily sighed as another pair of students tried a jinx on the dragon, proving it to be inneffective at capturing the beast. She would've felt bad for the baby any other day, but her own troubles distracted her from the fact that it was rather cruel to be trying binding curse after stunning curse after blasting and gouging curses on an essentially defenseless baby. The Slytherin boys made confusing, idle comments, none of which granted a reaction such as those from Defence Against the Dark Arts.

Lily sighed as the bell rang from the castle in the distance, happy to get out of the sun, which was beginning to heat the landscape and make the air more stifling than fresh and awakening. She trekked, Remus at her side, up to the second floor Charms classroom for her third period. She seated herself in the very front right corner of the room so as not to face any other student. After two hours, she was sure that she'd been the last in the school to hear about whatever it was that had made her a laughing stock today, and she didn't want to deal with looking at the people laughing at her. Remus sat himself next to her, Sirius, James and Peter ducking into the seats directly behind them. Although she knew it was likely because Sirius wanted to toss little wads of paper at her head all hour(which he promptly started doing as class began), she was silently grateful. It would mean that she didn't have to listen to as much of the mad giggling.

Today's assignments started with demonstrating the charms they'd come up with for homework the other night. As per usual, Professor Flitwick noted aloud that Lily and the Marauders - though he mentioned them by their proper names - had gone a cut above the rest, suggesting that the class look to those five for guidance in the creation area of the class. Lily's complex scale-model of Hogwarts was returned back to it's original form - a pointed wizard's hat - and the lesson continued on. Flitwick lectured for a couple minutes before setting the class free to attempting the various charms in the chapter they were working on. He wanted the students in groups of five, and so Lily reluctantly turned around as Remus did. Hestia moved from her seat on the other side of Remus, crossing the classroom to complete another group of Gryffindors.

Charms flew as the students settled into their groups, hitting random objects about the room and causing students to duck away from bolts of colored light. A stray _aguamenti_ flew out an open window behind Flitwick, who looked relieved to have not been doused in the magically-summoned water. Having already perfected the charms, she and Remus played a bit with the fire and water charms - one of them would cast a small _incendium_, which the other would quickly put out with an _aguamenti_.

Lily watched James as she played with Remus. He was nervous - glancing about, barely paying attention to the spells he was casting, causing his friends to dive out of the way of more than one errant earth-moving charm. She counted them truly lucky for the fact that he didn't feel the need to practice his fire charms. In any case, his nervous fidgetting indicated that he did, in fact, know about whatever it was that people were laughing about, and was probably worried that she thought it was his fault. He'd never been known to look nervous, and this made Lily herself even more nervous. If he was nervous, then whatever it was must be worse than anything she'd ever encountered.

So the question came down to - how was she going to corner James? The elusive James Potter, the one who knew all the school's secret passageways and hiding places. The one who seemed to always know where she was. How would she get him to herself if he didn't want her to? She frowned as an idea occured to her. She'd just have to _make_ him want to be near her. Of course! Why hadn't she thought of it first? This was _James Potter_. While he may know Hogwarts' every nook and cranny like the back of his hand, he also _fancied_ her. It shouldn't really be all that hard to get him alone, should it? How hard could flirting back be?

Her frown of concentration became one of frustration. But, of course, he hadn't been flirting with her today. In fact, he seemed to be trying to avoid her in his nervous state. She sighed a bit, waving off Remus' questioning look. After a group of Hufflepuffs nearly set their table on fire, they were laughing so hard, she set a new goal for herself. After all, _flirting_ couldn't be that difficult, could it?

A list of ways she could flirt with James Potter in her head, she set off to lunch after the bell, barely keeping up with the fast-paced boys. She wondered briefly how they could move so fast, but it was a rather wide-spread fact that the best way to get to a man was through food. The gang of boys situated themselves almost halfway down the Gryffindor table. She'd never noticed before, but they sat in the same spot every day. She sighed, thanking Godric Gryffindor that one of James' sides was empty, and headed up the table to where they sat, filling their plates with the house elf-prepared foods.

All four boys stared at her, surprised, as she seated herself next to the black haired boy. She was sure that other people were staring as well - so much whispering was happening in the Great Hall that it souded like a giant hornets' nest. However, she valiantly braved it - she wasn't a Gryffindor for nothing - and started gathering her own food, acting as though nothing were amiss. She noted, surprised, that many of the foods she grabbed were also on James' plate. She settled into the munch, the boys still gawking at her. Attempting coyness was probably not her forte, but she sent what she desperately hoped was a flirtatious glance out of the corner of her eye to James. She noted a slight blush over his cheekbones; he was just full of surprises today. He followed her example from this morning, burrying his slightly pink face in his own plateful. She let the whipers die down a bit before she spoke a few minutes later.

"So how's your day been?" She question amicably - hoping she came off as not really caring, just trying to make conversation. If it seemed like she really cared, he'd probably figure out what she was up to. Remus coughed a bit, and she knew that he was onto her ploy. She smiled a tiny bit for his benefit, though it was worrying that she was so easy to see through. She'd have to step it up.

"Ah, good? The dragon thing was fairly bonkers, and I'm not really getting the _incendium_ charm, but otherwise... Good." He looked a bit confused, but she was easily distracted from that.

"You aren't getting the fire charms? Why weren't you practicing in class, James?" She tossed his first name on the end, remembering the reaction at breakfast. His stuttering distracted her from whoever was sitting down on her other side.

"I suppose he doesn't want to look like an idiot in your favorite class, Lils." She whipped around, now noting the third entrant to the conversation. Hestia sat by her, picking out her food. She turned back to James, who was burrying his face once more in his lunch. She frowned a bit.

"That can't be true though, Hes. Everyone knows that he's brilliant when it comes to Charms. I mean, he's not performing muggle pranks, now is he?" She stated, attempting to give him a bit of confidence. It was just too abnormal for him to be lacking in that area; it threw off her perception of the world. Hestia snorted beside her, but Lily smiled a bit as Potter's head lifted, proud for praise.

"Anyhow, I think that particular spell was one of the more difficult ones, so it's not that surprising that you're having difficulty." It was a lie, of course, but she could hardly flirt while telling him it was barmy that he hadn't figured out a spell yet. She pulled out her own wand, seizing the opportunity.

"It's like this." She stated simply before twirling her wand upward and slashing it down. The move itself had taken her a few tries, so she knew it was most likely what he was having trouble with. She performed the move again as he reached for his own wand, eyeing her critically. Hesitantly, he performed it. The wand didn't move upwards much during the twirls and his chop was more forceful than elegant. She blamed it on the Quidditch.

"No, no. See, watch me again. Watch the way the wand moves." She instructed before performing the moves again. His following attempt was better, as the wand moved upwards, but he was still having difficulty with the chop. She frowned, never being known for her patience. She sighed.

"Here." She moved him to face Sirius, who was on his other side, thus situating herself behind him. From this position, she grabbed his hand lightly, holding it just tight enough to control.

"Now just let me do the moving." His arm relaxed and she slowly moved the wand in his hand, showing him the move and demonstrating what he was doing wrong. She noticed from this angle that he seemed most elegant, gripping the mahogany wand in a way that made it appear an extension of himself, just the way it should. She got a bit distracted by Ollivander's exellence before coming back to the situation at hand. She pulled her hand slowly away from his and he looked back at her over his shoulder. Turning back to the table, he proceeded to perform the move expertly. She smiled widely.

"Excellent!" She declared, and a smile sprang up on his still-dazed face.

"Yes, yes. Now that you've shown off your teaching expertise, can we all go back to eating? I'm bloody starving." Hestia spoke. Lily huffed, a bit embarrassed by the 'showing off' comment.

"Nobody asked you to stop eating for this, Hestia. Now, how are you pronouncing it, James?" She questioned, her voice going from annoyed to soft questioning in the space of an instant. He spoke and she knew that his previous difficulty had come from the conflict between his moves and voice.

"A bit harsher, like you were doing with the slash." Her eyes were trained on his lips as he prounounced the spell once more. She stared for a few more moments, wondering if flirting with someone made you like them instead of the opposite.

"Very good. Now put them together. Make sure your intent isn't to set the whole table on fire." She guided him. He performed the spell fantastically, setting fire to a piece of bread on Sirius' plate. She snorted as the boy panicked, tossing the bread - now blackened toast - across the table towards Remus, who deftly ducked out of the way. It flew past him, into a group of Hufflepuff boys. They shouted, before Andrew, who was in their Charms class, put out the fire that had started on Earl's robes. Lily sniggered. No matter that the Hufflepuffs had become unintended victims. Lily was now laughing, watching Sirius, who was trying to regain composure as James patted him heartily on the back, laughing his arse off with the rest of them.

Lunch passed without incident - aside from Peter knocking over his goblet and nearly spilling his pumpkin juice all over Lily - and many glares from the Hufflepuff boys. Hestia found herself very amused by this and had taken to tossing little bread crumbs over at them, much the Lily's chagrin. The bell ringing brought her out of her thoughts, sending the group off to Advanced Transfiguration.

Sitting in the front, she chatted up McGonagall, who eyed the boys sitting with her warily. No matter how outstanding the boys were in her class - Lily was still attempting to repress memories of James and Sirius beating her on the O.W.L. - that didn't make up for their trickster natures. At the moment, James - who seemed to be back to his normal self at her side - was transfiguring McGonagall's chair into giant, moving frog. Lily watched it, noticing that it was highly advanced work, probably well beyond anything taught here at Hogwarts. McGonagall gave a great shout as another student walked in, staring blankly at the chair before bursting into laughter. The Head of Gryffindor transfigured it back to it's original state and glared at the obvious culprit. However, Lily noticed a spark of pride in the strict woman's eyes; she was clearly glad that her house had been blessed with someone as talented in her subject as James.

Class started with a short, informative lecture, before the students - trusted more in their sixth year than ever before - were let go to work on transfiguring thimbles into toy mice. Professor McGonagall enjoyed throwing out days for practice. She felt that if you wanted someone to grow, they needed to continue performing the things they had learned early on. And so, Lily had a pile of toy mice - in bright neon colors - growing nearly as fast as James'.

Halfway through the hour, McGonagall's alarmed look got Lily to grasp James' wand arm, effectively distracting him from his next thimble. The entire four-person desk was covered in toy mice, of all shapes, sizes and colors. Potter elbowed Sirius in the side, as he was the last to continue making them - Remus had noticed the woman's face and stopped immediately, as well. Lily sighed and set herself to the task of transfiguring the mice into their true forms five at a time.

Two minutes later, the desk was cleared, thimbles returned to their giant box. Lily set her head on the desk, facing the boys. She looked up at James from her spot on the table. His eyes quickly flitted away from her face - she could only assume he'd been staring.

"Where did you learn to do that?" She tilted her head to where McGonagall sat in her chair, grading papers. Lily couldn't figure that she had anything to 'flirt' with him over aside from schoolwork - she knew virtually nothing about Quidditch, held no particular interest in pulling pranks, was the opposite gender, and was a muggle-born, so they would only get muddled up in the details of their home lives. His eyes came back to her, and he shrugged.

"Dad was saying something about how someone in his department had done it and it'd gone wild - the animal, that is. I think it was a hare, though. But it didn't seem like it could be that hard." He shrugged, and Lily stared. Not that... How could it be 'not that hard'? It was extremely advanced magic for a sixth year, and he just shrugged it off! Lily was reminded of how odd this boy could be. He was such a show off with his childish pranks, but he didn't think that magic not typically learned until much older was anything special. She shook her head slightly, rolling her eyes at him.

"What?" He questioned, having caught her movement.

"You... You're really brilliant, aren't you?" The words had left her mouth before she could stop to think about them, and she was privvy to another of James' ridiculous blushes. He stared out a window, forgoing whatever reply he could possibly come up with for that - she was sure there wasn't much. How do you reply to someone who's ignored you for the better part of six years suddenly telling you you're brilliant? Lily kept her mouth shut for the rest of the hour, pondering on what had possessed her to tell him that. Her eyes stayed trained on his face though, unconsciously committing it to memory.

The bell had her standing, groggily, to go off to the next class. She brightened considerably as she realized that fifth period had finally arrived - Advanced Potions. She lead the way to the dark room on the first floor cheerily, only realizing as she reached the door that this, the only class they shared with Severus, was also the only class in which none of the Marauders had ever sat by her. The smile she hadn't been aware of faded a shade, but Professor Slughorn smiled back nonetheless. As a member of the 'Slug Club' - so affectionally termed by the man himself, not-so-surprisingly - she was often treated nicer than the majority of the other students of Hogwarts. She doubted if there was anything she could do to get into trouble with him. He often spoke of how they - his Slug Clubbers - would go onto greatness, and she had already figured that the only reason the club existed was because he wanted to be affiliated to that greatness.

She thanked Merlin when she sat down for Remus, who came up and sat down at her side without preamble. Sadly, Black beat Potter to the seat on her other side. The nervous look back on his face, Potter sat beside Sirius, obviously hoping that he could interfere if Sirius were to try to... start anything. Peter sat next to Remus and the rest of the students took their seats as class began. They were brewing Amortentia today, which Lily sighed at. Of course, the one day she sat with the Marauders they'd be brewing a love potion.

However, the boys stayed oddly quiet considering all of the love jokes she knew Sirius could come up with. When a joke was finally made, it wasn't even from the four surrounding her, in fact. Professor Slughorn was in the storeroom on the other side of the class when she was finally addressed.

"Needing a little extra help from the Marauders today, are we Evans? Gotten a bit _closer_ with them recently?" She turned her head at the sound of Mullciber's gravelly voice as he questioned her. Though she was clueless what he meant, she shrugged the insult off as she always would've as the other Slytherins in the class hooted in laughter at his apparent joke. She narrowed her eyes at him, pulling the aloof demeanor she always used in this class out of thin air.

"In case you hadn't noticed, Mullciber, the boys are still working in their pairs, and I am still working alone. Meanwhile, you are still allowing Avery to do all the work for you, so your lack of any particular talent, let alone in Potions, has me wondering why you think you have the upper hand here." She stated snootily. She was rather impressed with herself - she'd really sounded like Petunia that time. By now, James and Sirius were turned towards Mullciber as well, who was glaring at her as silence had befallen the Slytherins.

"Oh please. Your friend Sirius waving that picture around gives us all the 'upper hand' we need. I mean, if you're going to _lower_ yourself that way..." A girl who Lily only knew by her surname, Dragomir, spoke from behind Mullciber, and the Slytherins erupted into laughter once more. There it was again, more reference to Lily being on the ground... Her mind turned the idea over and over as she turned back to her potion, which was beginning to bubble and steam. What could that possibly mean? She looked to Remus, who suddenly turned back to his and Peter's potion, acting as though he hadn't seen her. She scowled, sending a look out of the corner of her eye to Potter and Black. They were engaged in a deep, whispered conversation that she couldn't overhear, not paying any attention to their potion, which was beginning to turn a sickly color of yellow.

"You'll want to pay attention to your potion Black, it's never going to get a passing grade at the rate you're going." She said, her tone still a bit sharp from the conversation with the Slytherins. She hadn't missed what Dragomir had said - _Sirius_ had been the one showing everyone the picture, and until she learned what exactly the picture had in it that had everyone so amused, she was not going to rest. Which meant, of course, that she was going to have to turn up the charm on James, regardless of how disastrous it had gone in Transfiguration.

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><p>AN: I didn't know I was gonna enjoy this story so much, but here I am, barreling through to get to another chapter. :) As far as I know, 'Incendium' is mine(a Latin translation for the word 'fire').<p> 


	2. The Photo Is Revealed

Disclaimer: In no way do I own Harry Potter or anything affiliated with it. Well, aside from merchandise. I have quite a bit of that.

AN: I know, this chapter's nowhere near as long as the first, but I hope you guys like it, just the same! I hope this makes some anonymous people happier with Sirius, and I guess it's time for you to find out if your guesses were right! Special thanks to everyone who reviewed, you really pumped me up and got me going on the second chapter. Without further delay, I reveal to you the second chapter of _'Revealing Photos.'_

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><p>The rest of Potions was rather uneventful. Nobody spoke once Professor Slughorn came back into the room, and everyone worked dilligently on the Amortentia, which was one of the harder potions they'd had to make so far. The silence had a slightly uncomfortable feeling to it, and Lily was greatful once the potions were graded not only for her top marks, but also for the fact that she was able to leave the room quickly, heading up to Gryffindor tower. The boys lumbered behind her, and she could hear the hushed sound of a whispered conversation between Sirius and James.<p>

She didn't mind that nobody was speaking now - she spent the time on the way up to the tower thinking of a way to pick up the flirting again. By the time they reached the tower, she still hadn't devised a way to bring up playful banter or anything of the sort, so she hurriedly scurried up the stairs to deposit her bag on her bed. She sighed. She seemed to be doing that a lot lately. Frowning, she walked right back down the stairs. She wouldn't get anywhere if she cooped herself up in her room all afternoon. Maybe, if she went down and stayed with the boys, she could find out before dinner what this whole mess was about.

Spotting the boys on the couch and seats near the fire - they had roused two first years from the spot when they'd entered - she made her way calmly to them, trying desperately to appear nonchalant. She smiled as she noted the space next to Potter was empty. She took the admittedly confined space, a bit nervous about being so close to him. The boys all stared at her - aside from James, who was looking away from her, though she could still see the blush he was obviously trying to hide. She stared right back at Sirius defiantly. This was all his fault.

"What? I'm waiting for Hestia to get back from Ancient Runes." She wasn't really lying, but they knew that normally, she would stay in her dorm to wait for the girl. They didn't know that she was generally woken by Hestia's arrival - her 'inner clock' or whatnot was utter rubbish, meaning that she should really stop taking those naps. Oh well, at least Hestia was there to wake her. Sirius shifting brought her back to the present time and place. He was smirking at her, which worried her. Blimey, couldn't he just let her attempt horribly to flirt with his best mate? Of course not, she knew that. And by the look of that smirk, he was on to her. Her eyes narrowed at him, the beginnings of a rather heated glare that his next sentence did nothing to alleviate.

"Oh please, don't bother trying to hide it - you just wanna get up close and personal with Prongs, here." He nodded toward James, his voice suspiciously rising at the faux description of what she wanted. Her fury spiked when she noted that everyone within earshot was now paying close attention, and only some of them were bothering to try to hide their rapt attention to goings-on that weren't their business.

"I'll make sure to tell Alice that you're making sexual innuendos in front of young, impressionable minds. I wonder how many points she'll be forced to deduct?" Her voice came out with a bit more sting than she'd meant, but it made her feel a slight better as he took on a scandalized front. She didn't generally like to have points deducted from Gryffindor, and not just because these boys badgered her for weeks afterward every time it happened. She genuinely didn't like it to happen - it was her own house, after all. And with all the mischief these boys got up to, she didn't really need to add to the downward spiral. All four of the boys were watching her now, but thankfully most of the other eyes had turned away, obviously deciding it was not worth the risk of her catching them and her cold fury turning onto them.

"Augh, please don't Lily. Fifty points were already deducted when McGonagall saw Sirius..." Peter's pleading voice was cut off when Remus conspicuously suddenly fell over, accidentally elbowing the other boy in the gut. Lily's eyes bulged. _Fifty_ points? What on earth... She turned her calculating eyes on Potter, who had scooted a bit away from her, and once again had turned a blushing face away. What the hell could be in whatever 'it' was that had caused McGonagall to dock _fifty_ points? Surely, it had to be something else, it couldn't have to do with her. Maybe they'd pulled another prank? But then, she'd know about something like that - they weren't known for pulling secretive pranks. It 'went against the Marauder code' or something like that, Sirius was always yammering on about it. And anyways, if it was a prank, Peter could've told her, so it _had_ to be the same thing that everyone was talking about. She frowned. But what could be so bad that McGonagall would deduct so many points?

"What did you do now?" She directed the exhausted-sounding(not all an act, it was hard work flirting with Potter) question to James, who in turn shrank back even more. He was encroaching on Remus' space now, and he didn't bother to hide the sudden terror in his eyes.

"Me? It wasn't me, I didn't do anything. It just happened, I swear, I don't know..." Remus coughed, cutting off the words spewing from James' mouth. She stared at James before raising a brow at Remus, who once again only replied with a glance at James and Sirius. She sighed. This wasn't getting her anywhere! She'd already _known_ that it was Sirius, not James, who had done whatever it was to embarass her. What she needed to know was what_ it _was! A huff blew a lock of hair that had fallen into her face away, and she looked at the four boys.

Potter still looked like he'd start shaking any moment from nerves, Peter _was_ shaking, Remus was acting nonchalant, and Sirius was smiling smugly, looking at them as though he were a king. She frowned. At this rate, she'd never get James to tell her what it was. Hell, she'd never get James away from Sirius, even. So, she sighed and steeled herself for what she was about to do.

"Potter?" Her voice sounded foreign to her own ears, as though someone else were speaking. However, it was enough to pull James' eyes to her faster than a Silver Arrow. The terror was back, but she overlooked it, barrelling on before she lost her nerve. She forced the rest out in a low voice so everyone wouldn't hear.

"Couldyouteachmetorideabroom?" The question tore from her lips faster than his eyes had come to her; somehow he seemed to manage to understand though, as his eyes widened in surprise. She hurried to cover her arse. Honestly, Hestia should be here to help her flirt, what a horrible mate she was. She steadfastly ignored the fact that it wasn't Hestia's fault that she had Ancient Runes right now.

"Umm, I mean, it doesn't have to be right now, we could do it later this week, or I mean, I understand if you don't want to do it at all, it's not like I could pay you or anything, it's just that I'm a rubbish flyer and..." She allowed herself to trail off, well beyond aware of the fact that she was babbling aimlessly. On top of that, in the space of a minute she had not only given herself a silly reason(that he was sure to see through) to be alone with him, but she had also taken it away. How daft of her. She could smack herself, honestly. He saved her from her own whims.

"N-no! You don't have to pay me or anything Evans. And um, we could do it now, if that's what you want, but uh... I thought you were waiting for Hestia, weren't you? It's really whatever you want, though..." Well, that was lovely. If she couldn't get him to tell her what was going on, they could always be babbling buddies, since they were both so proficient at it. She smiled at his rambling, one of the rare real smiles she used with him.

"Oh it's fine, I mean, Sirius could always tell Hestia were we went. And, umm, are you sure you'll do this for nothing? I know Bobby Yorkson paid you twelve galleons last year to do it..." She still smarted about that - Bobby was a nice Hufflepuff boy in their year who'd always looked up to James, and they had taken advantage of him when he had finally gathered his courage and asked for some flying lessons. Potter smirked at her, a bit of his old normal self shining through. Blimey, if someone had told her yesterday that she'd be trying to make Potter an arrogant prankster, she'd have walked them straight to Madame Pomfrey.

"Yeah, but two weeks later he woke up to suspiciously find twenty galleons in his shoes." He replied with a laugh. She stared at him, working the statement over in her head.

"But... He only gave you twelve galleons!" She pointed out. He laughed outright this time, standing up.

"Well, I know that, of course. But, the lessons made him good enough to make it onto the Hufflepuff team, and the team was better for it, so I decided to pay him back. It's not like he squandered the lessons, like most people do. Now, are we going to sit here talking about Yorkson all afternoon, or did you want to fly before the sun goes down?" He questioned, holding a hand out to her. She smiled, a bit abashed that they'd ended talking so long. She took his proffered hand and stood, smiling at Sirius, who was finally frowning rather than smirking.

James led her out of the common room and through the complex hallways, ducking behind a portrait of a wizard doing a jig and hopping over three trick stairs, one that she nearly missed. She was a bit out of breath when they finally reached the large doors opening onto the grounds - she was at least a foot shorter than Potter, and the lost height seemed to be all in the legs. His strides caused her to almost have to run to keep up with him. The same went as they crossed the grounds to the Quidditch pitch, which was empty at this time of day.

She followed him to the broom shed and they took out two of the school's better brooms. He walked her to a place on the field that was nowhere closed to any structure(she silently thanked him) and stopped, turning to face her.

"We'll start off slow, since you never fly. Um, you can get on it now." She blushed, putting a leg over the broom. He corrected her grip, telling her to put her dominant hand up front and spread her hands apart a titch. She pushed off of the ground when he deemed her ready, hovering there as he got on the other broom. He pulled a face as he pushed off, but she didn't have long to wonder before he was giving her pointers again.

"Now, you'll want to lean forward a slight bit to move. _Just_ a little. If you hunker down to the broom... Well, nothing will happen, since you're on one of the school's rusty old brooms, but on any worthy broom, you'd shoot off. Now, lean forward, then come right back up." He instructed. She did as told, jittering a bit as the broom jerked forward. She took a deep breath, letting it out slowly as he watched her. It was a bit unnerving, and she was kicking herself for not coming up with a better plan.

"So, what's a _worthy_ broom, in your expert opinion?" She questioned, forcing herself to make eye contact and at least _try_ to sound serious. He blinked.

"Ah... Anything new, really. The Moontrimmers are probably the bottom rung, anything newer gets better by the year, and the Silver Arrows are the best." He ended with a smirk as he praised his own broom. She smiled. He was making this all too easy.

"Isn't that the type of broom you have? The Silver Arrow, I mean?" She smiled; flirting was a bit easier when they were talking about something he liked. He seemed to respond better, as well, if the huge smile on his face was any clue.

"Yeah. It's a bloody _amazing_ broom." His voice was soft, almost wistful. She didn't think she'd ever heard him talk about something with such reverence before.

"Is it? I always thought they were all the same." It wasn't a lie... Or it wouldn't have been, if she didn't share a dorm with Marlene and Hestia. Those girls were always at each other's throats arguing over the pros and cons of different brooms. James sent her a look that clearly stated just what he thought of her misjudgement.

"Really Lily, don't you know anything about flying? I'd have thought that living with Marlene would teach you better. Not to worry, I'll show you." He pulled out his wand and summoned his broom, keeping one hand on the broom he was on. His balancing act made her a little nervous, but she held it together, telling herself that he did things like that all the time - the using one hand, not doing magic while on a broom - during Quidditch. He hopped off to the ground, leaving the old broom there while his own came speeding to him.

There was nothing quite like James with a broom, she decided. It was like he became a different person. He wasn't so cocky until he was in the sky. While he was on the ground, he seemed... Breathless. As though nothing could compare to the broom in his hands. He held up the sleek, gleaming broom.

"She's just been cleaned." He offered up, waving her over. She debated on returning to the ground, but decided that that would indicate that she didn't really want to learn. So, she floated over to him(it wasn't that far, anyway) and smiled.

"Well, what are you doing, get down here." He looked at her expectantly. She frowned.

"What?" The question sounded rather daft to her ears, but there was no way to take it back now.

"I'm gonna take you for a ride, obviously. How else are you supposed to see the difference you daft thing?" The smile he sent her would've been blinding to other girls, she was sure, but she tried to ignore it as she hopped off the broom. It wasn't through any desire to seem cool like him, but more because she didn't exactly trust that she could take the broom to ground. Her skirt flew up a bit, but she batted it down quickly, and he straddled his broom, obviously trying to appear as though he hadn't noticed anything. She set her broom next to his discarded one before stepping up to him.

"Ahh... Can you even fly two at a time on a broom? Isn't that dangerous?" She questioned, suddenly weary. This didn't sound like a good idea; he smirked at her regardless.

"Obviously you can, or I wouldn't be taking you. Really, do you think I'd endanger you, Evans? It's all about the skill of the person flying, which is why _I'm_ the one flying us. Now come here, you need to get situated." She frowned a bit at his cocky attitude, but of course she knew he wasn't just all talk, she'd seen him in every Quidditch game since second year. Another problem soon made itself evident.

"Ahh... Where?" She wasn't even used to flying on her own. It really didn't look like there was exactly a bunch of extra room on there. He shuffled forward an inch or two, but there really didn't seem to be any room to fit her as well.

"Right behind me. Mind you, you'll have to stick close, but I really don't bite, Evans." He sent her that smile that would make other girls' knees weak again, and she stepped up to him, awkwardly throwing her leg over the broom. She stood there for a moment before she decided that there was no way around it - she'd have to hold onto him. She looked up to see him watching her over his shoulder, as though wondering what she was going to do. She gave him a weak smile before scooting just a bit closer and wrapping her arms around him, linking her hands over his abs, which she noticed were quite hard. Despite all she said about him, there was no denying it: James Potter was fit.

Her breathing stopped for a few moments as her heart lept into her throat when he kicked off the ground hard without warning, shooting them into the sky. When she finally started breathing again, she loosened her arms a bit - she didn't want to squeeze him quite so hard. Besides, it was fine when he wasn't speeding along. Well, relatively fine. She looked around, taking in the landscape. He had gone right past the stands, so she could see everything: the castle, the lake, the forest, and the grounds heading to the mountains. It was all so beautiful from here.

"See? Getting close to me isn't so bad, is it? Not when you get to see things like this." She could hear the smirk in his voice, but his words suddenly spawned an idea. This time, it was Lily who smirked.

"Well, yes, I supposed. But I don't know if a magnificent view of the Hogwarts grounds is exactly enough to risk everyone in the school jeering at me. By the way, you wouldn't happen to know what that's all about, would you James?" The use of his first name made his head whip towards her as though it wasn't attached to anything, she swore she heard something crack. She gave him a look that she knew he couldn't deny - the previous five years of dealing with him _had _taught her something, after all. His gaze turned pained, and before he could lie to her, she spoke up again.

"I mean, Remus kept trying to tell me it had something to do with you two, but I just can't think you'd do anything _truly_ embarrassing to me." She batted her eyelashes twice for good measure. He stared at her in silence for a few more angst-filled(at least for her) seconds before letting out a gust of air. The broom dropped a few inches and she clung tighter to him.

"It's Sirius." He admitted. Finally, she was getting somewhere!

"But don't tell him I told you! Just... I dunno, you found out from some random Hufflepuff, okay? At least, if he asks - don't offer the information up, or anything." He was returning them to the ground at a more sedate pace as he spoke, which she appreciated. She let out a sigh as her feet touched the ground again.

"So... What exactly is it that Sirius did?" She questioned after dismounting, walking over to the pick up the school's brooms with him. He sent her a sidelong glance before reaching into his pants pocket and pulling out a folded paper. He handed it to her and continued to place the broom he'd grabbed back in the broom shed. She propped her own against her shoulder and unfolded the paper.

It was a picture.

She stared at it for a moment, not comprehending. This was all about some picture? She looked closer, feeling as though she must be missing something. What could possibly... _Holy Merlin!_

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><p>"Evans? Evans... Lily, are you okay?" Lily blinked, hard. Her eyes were dry, and she nearly jumped when she noticed how close James' bespectacled face was to her own. She looked back down at the picture in her hands. Yup, it was still there.<p>

"Lily, you've been staring at it for five minutes, please say something." There was a tinge of desperation in James' voice, and she looked up at him. His magnified hazel eyes(odd, she'd never really noticed the color before) were still trained on her, as though he were memorizing her face.

She started laughing. She really couldn't help it, it just happened. One minute she was staring at the photo, the next she was in hysterics, bending nearly in half with the force of her guffaws. She knew he was probably staring incredulously at her, but she just couldn't get herself to stop.

"Lily?" He questioned nervously. She shook her head, unable to control it.

"It... It's fine... Really." She gasped between fits of mad giggles. She was gasping for air now, and she could hear him shuffling beside her, apparently not knowing what to do. She stood back up when her body finally remembered what it was like to breathe. She handed the photo back to him. She didn't need to look again to know that the people in the photograph were continuing their activities. Apparently, they'd been doing the same for a while. Long enough for everyone at Hogwarts to find out, at least.

"Is that what you were so nervous about?" She questioned, smiling at him. He frowned at her.

"Well... Yeah, I assumed. Um, y'know, that you'd think I caused it to happen, or something. Are you sure you're okay with this?" His confusion was palpable, nearly a physical thing. She felt slightly bad for him, actually. He'd gotten himself so worked up over something so little. It was a bloody _photograph_. Everyone knew you couldn't control what the people in the pictures did.

She walked to replace the broom she'd used, closing the door to the shed behind her. They set off up to the castle, James following her closely.

"I mean, I understand of course if you don't want to talk to me, but honestly Evans, it was Sirius. I'd swear by it. Hell, I'll even get Remus and Pete to swear to it! I honestly didn't do anything to the photo, no one did. It was just like this yesterday evening when Sirius found it, and he started waving it around to anyone who'd look. I didn't even know he was doing it, I swear. I would've stopped him, I know how you hate to be embarrassed like that-" He was still talking, but Lily had stopped listening. They were closing in on the giant doors of Hogwarts, but she was hardly paying attention to where she was going. Since when did Potter notice things like that? She looked over at him. He was still rambling on, quite obviously nervous. The hand that wasn't holding his broom securely was deeply lodged in his messy black locks, a nervous habit of his.

James' steamroller tirade cut off suddenly. He was staring, wide-eyed, down at Lily, who was staring right back up at him. Suddenly, she fled, taking the stairs inside nearly three-at-a-time. She wouldn't have been surprised if he hadn't moved by the time she made it to Gryffindor tower. But that didn't matter now, because she'd just kissed him. _She_, Lily Evans, had _kissed_ James Potter.

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><p>"Mind you, it wasn't a full-on <em>snog<em> or anything... But Merlin, Hestia, what was I _thinking_?" Her feet were wearing a hole in the carpet, she was sure, but she just couldn't stop pacing. What had she done? She'd gotten what she wanted, she knew what people were talking about - what in Merlin's name had prompted her to validate their snide comments?

"Well, none of this would've happened if you had just been a bit more patient and waited for me to get back from Ancient Runes, you daft cow. Cor, Lily, you're so impulsive sometimes. I knew about that picture since yesterday evening, I was one of the first people Sirius showed it to. I was going to warn you this morning, but you wouldn't get up, and I needed to get down to the Great Hall to stop him from showing everyone. I came up just as McGonagall was deducting points - he'd apparently been making a few innuendos." Hestia frowned at Lily from her relaxed pose on her bed.

"What does that matter now, Hes? I don't know what to do. _Help me._" Lily face first onto Hestia's mattress. She could hear the girl shuffling, rumaging around in her bedside table. She mumbled an 'Aha!', and smacked something down onto Lily's back. She rolled over, grabbing it before it could get caught beneath her.

"Witch Weekly?" She questioned. The cover of the magazine displayed a picture of a beautiful witch in the arms of a wizard laughing happily, the words 'is it love or crush?' curling in cursive in the bottom right corner, and a few flickering advertisements on the left. She raised a brow at Hestia.

"Of course! I know you heard Dorcas and I discussing the main article last week - I believe you said something about the 'dunderhead girls' that couldn't tell the difference - and I think it would be very beneficial for you to read it." Hestia shrugged and twirled a thick brown curl around her finger. Lily only stared.

"Oh, come off it, Lily. I've known you for six years now, and I reckon I know you better than anyone aside from possibly your mum. Lily, you don't snog people if you don't mean it - yes yes, I know it wasn't a full-frontal snog, but regardless. You wouldn't have kissed him if you didn't genuinely want to. Say what you want, but Lily, I know you better than you know yourself." Lily only stared at the girl in awe before turning her eyes back to the magazine. Maybe...

"Which in turn, means I was also not surprised that when Sirius got Pete to take that picture of you, Potter, Remus and himself, you and James started snogging for all England." The girl smirked, quickly running out the door to escape her best mate. Lily frowned, not even acknowledging her antics.

Merlin. She liked James Potter.

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><p>AN: AH! I hope you guys liked it!<p> 


	3. Lo and Behold, Sirius Was Right

AN: So, some people didn't really understand what the picture actually showed, and therefore, I've decided: Another chapter is in order! Here you are, the real final installment of 'Revealing Photos'! Besides, I love to write James' point of view, it's so fun. And Holy Mother of Merlin, it's 10,000 words! I don't even know how that happened. O.O

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. I don't even really want him, I could deal with the Marauders and Lily. Sadly, I'm almost certain that the lovely Ms. Rowling won't be selling them anytime soon, and I'm a poor university student anyway, so I make do with fanfiction.

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><p>It was two in the bloody morning, he shouldn't be tossing and turning like this. Honestly, a person's best mate was supposed to relieve one's tension, were they not? When he'd become mates with Sirius, James really should've known that he'd cause him trouble. He rolled over again, glaring at Sirius' closed bed curtains, behind which the boy was snoring away without a bloody care in the world.<p>

_'Bloody mate.'_ He thought visciously. He sat up, giving up on any pretense of sleep. He supposed that Remus' nervous demeanor when he'd come into the dorm the previous evening should've been the first clue that something was up. It was never good when he returned from Quidditch practice and Moony had that weary look he got whenever Sirius was going to pull a particularly interesting(for lack of a better word) prank. Sirius should never be allowed to plan his own pranks; he always took them just a bit too far.

James though, had just shrugged it all off, including the fact that Sirius hadn't been in the dorm, or Gryffindor tower at all. When he finally did get back, just before curfew, James had been shocked to the core by the truth of the situation.

At first, he'd assumed that it really was one of Padfoot's worse - for him - pranks, and it had taken quite a bit of fast talking from the Black boy to convince him not to pound his best mate into the floor - honestly, his situation with Evans was already bad enough, he really didn't need Pads to make it any worse.

Twelve minutes of fast explanation and a result-less Secret Revealing charm later, he was finally convinced, but it really did nothing to rectify the situation. Sirius had already shown almost every student who wasn't a Slytherin the picture, and by morning the whole student body would know. Lily would be furious and likely would blame James without even considering the fact that it was Sirius showing everyone the picture(while he'd been busy at Quidditch practice, mind you). There would be a huge blow up, a giant and public fight wherein objects would be thrown near as much as insults, and Lily would probably never give him a second thought again, if he survived the battle. If not, she'd probably dance at his funeral. He remembered nearly hyperventilating at that point, needing to sit down.

How had that even happened? Lily and him, snogging in a picture? It seemed a ridiculous notion, no matter how much he wished it were real. Lily didn't want to snog him. She didn't even want to be near him, much less connected at the lips. While it had seemed the only answer at the time, he knew that people couldn't control what the people in photographs did. Sure, you could make them move if you prodded them with your wand, but that didn't create a lasting effect. A glance at the picture on Si's bedtable told him that they were still rolling on the ground, snogging for all England. He wondered what it would feel like, to have her that close to him, to have her lips pressed to his. How would she taste? He shook his head - he didn't need to ponder on things he knew he couldn't have.

His thoughts drifted aimlessly through how they'd spent the rest of the evening. He'd never understand what in Merlin's name had made Sirius think that showing the bloody picture around was actually a good idea. Obviously, he knew that Pads had been irritated with Evans for not agreeing to go with him yet, but he hadn't realized he was that upset over it. And anyways, how did he figure that flashing a picture of 'Evans and Prongs snogging to cure dragonpox' would make her finally agree to a Hogsmeade date? It seemed like a step in the wrong direction, but Sirius would hear none of it. He'd only brushed James' worries off, saying that he was the expert on relationships, and it was sure to work. James didn't bother to point out that none of Sirius' multitude of 'relationships' had ever been particularly long-lived.

He finally fell asleep at 6 o'clock, the sky lightening outside the windows of the dorm. He was roughly awoken by Pads' pillow making contact with his head not an hour later. His mind invented horrible situations in which Lily and himself centered while he dressed and trailed after the boys on their way down to the Great Hall.

Sirius was waving the picture about again, blatantly ignoring his protests, before McGonagall came up to them, furious with him. She deducted fifty points for his foul mouth(which made it all worse than it would've been) before leaving them to wallow in their misery The three of them glared at Pads, who slipped the picture across the table at James' particularly murderous glare. He pocketed it just as Hestia came down and seated herself a seat away from him, questioning whether Pads really needed to do that, since she was fairly certain that everyone knew about it. James stared at her and the empty seat between them. Everyone... His eyes widened.

Dear Merlin and Godric Gryffindor! Lily knew, and Jones was leaving a space between them for the surely-enraged girl. His eyes widened in horror a few minutes later when Lily stepped into the Great Hall, her own eyes narrowing before she headed their way, ignoring the whispers around her. To his surprise, she took the seat between them without even glancing at him and started loading her plate. She looked around as the wild whispers seemed to finally reach her, and he poured her a glass of orange juice, hoping the nice gesture would please her into a sense of security, thus assuring she wouldn't yell at him. Her seemingly genuine thanks left him dumbfounded and he could only nod in reply.

The next few minutes passed without a disturbance with Pads distracted - Hestia had somehow engaged him in a conversation about Quidditch, and they were arguing about whether the Chudley Cannons or the Falmouth Falcons were better. He sighed as Sirius adamantly declared that the Cannons had turned to a big lot of ninnies since 1892, and that they'd never win the Cup again.

"Please, you both know that they'll never get far enough to face each other." He frowned at them. Honestly, the two came from completely different areas, and neither was really good enough to get very far. His own team of choice, the Appleby Arrows, would get much farther, if not win the European Cup. Lily sighed from his side as Jones and Padfoot glared at him murderously. Sirius' eyes suddenly twinkled, and he knew things were about to go downhill.

"What do you think, Evans?" The words were out of his mouth before James could even begin to try to threaten him with just his eyes. He stared at Padfoot in the moments of silence. _Why_ would he ask a question like that? He knew that Lily was muggleborn and barely knew anything at all about Quidditch. Way to put her on the bloody spot, mate.

"Uhmm... I don't know. What do you think James?" Her use of his first name had him blinking at her in what he was sure was a good impression of his owl, Snidget. Either way, she was good at directing attention away from her muggle upbringing - if only by shifting attention to a different matter all together. Now everyone within hearing distance was staring at them.

"Well?" He could just see the blush forming on her cheeks before she swung her head down to toy with the food on her plate. He shook his head to clear it, but her voice wrapping around his name simply echoed and wouldn't leave.

"Ahm. I'm rooting for the Appleby Arrows." He wondered if they could tell how nervous he was, trying to steer the topic away from Lily. He knew that it wouldn't hinder Sirius in the slightest. "They were sponsored for new Silver Arrows during the off season, and they've always been good at strategizing... I think they could really make it far this year." Though he was excited at the thought of Quidditch, he could still see the glint in Padfoot's eyes, and the boy spoke again.

"Yeah, but they're so far behind. I mean, _you've_ had the new Silver Arrow longer than they have. Where are they going to get with that kind of ruddy sponsoring? What do you think, Evans?" Sirius didn't even bother looking at him while he addressed him - his eyes stayed on the petite ginger the entire time. James felt himself scowling, his eyes narrowing in a wilting glare that the other boy completely ignored. Lily shifted nervously beside him.

"Maybe... Er, Puddlemere United?" He blinked. The answer was obviously a question, but how could she just pull easily one of the most successful, not to mention oldest, Quidditch teams off the top of her head? He ignored the fact that she probably only knew a couple of teams. Sirius snorted, and he was reminded of how the Falcons had been trampled by Puddlemere in last month's match - even if the Falcon's beater, Kenston, had sent that bludger at captain Fletcher's head, putting him out of commission for the rest of the season. He smiled a bit even as she blushed - she'd hit a sore spot without even realizing it. She let her head drop, red hair covering her equally-red cheeks - she obviously thought that the sniggering people were laughing at her, not Sirius.

"It is possible. They've got Moontrimmers, and they've had them longer, so they'll definitely be in better control. They got pretty well done over last season by the Falcon's, but they're always brutal - it's in their slogan. And besides that, Puddlemere's got a new captain this year, I hear. Haven't let out who it is, but he could lead them to victory." He couldn't help but tuck a lock of hair behind her ear, the strands soft like silk beneath his fingers. He knew it could cause her to blow up at him, but he just couldn't stand being so close and not being able to see her. He prepared himself for the worst when she turned her eyes to him, but stared in bemusement as the emeralds conveyed the most gratitude he'd ever recieved from her before. He merely nodded, not understanding why she wasn't furious as she normally would've been. He went back to his munch, and nearly snorted in amusement when she replied to another snort from Padfoot with an angrily muttered 'You asked.'

The rest of breakfast passed rather peacefully - 'rather' because Moony nearly strangled Wormtail when the boy asked for his help finding his notes for the Charms test tomorrow. The bell rang and they headed off to Defence. Once they reached the class, he pulled out Lily's seat for her and, noting the glint in Siri's eye, gave Moony a little push in the direction of her other side - Hestia wasn't in this class to save the girl from their mate. He heard her whispered thanks to Remus and, despite himself, wondered how it would feel to have her think highly enough of him to thank him on a regular basis. She always thanked Moony.

A few minutes into a boring lecture on Dementor safety, she suddenly shoved a piece of parchment into his space. He frowned at it, expecting a letter of anger about the photo, or a demand that he never touch her again. What he was _not_ expecting was a question about how his family was doing. He slid it closer, blinking to make sure he was seeing it right, then scratched down a reply that everything was alright. He knew that asking why she had asked was just opening up for her to start yelling about the picture - perhaps she thought he'd done it because something was wrong with one of his parents - but he couldn't resist asking. It really wasn't like her to pass notes in class. Her reply was rather lackluster, though he had to admit that he really wasn't acting like himself. Either way, she hadn't started yelling at him, so he shrugged and slid the paper under his untouched stack for safekeeping. It wasn't often he came across something with her handwriting that he could keep, especially wherein she had willingly elected to speak to him.

Sirius elbowed him lightly, eyes questioning, but he didn't bother to answer - if he wanted to start a mess, he could deal with it. A while later, Pads seemed unable to take it anymore, and leant over the desk a bit, suddenly setting quill to parchment, a sight unseen in classes(Padfoot wasn't exactly a note-taking kind of bloke). He watched as his mate's annoyed thoughts materialized on the parchment, hoping that nobody could see what he was writing, least of all Lily. His worries were soothed when she took up her own quill and started taking neat notes on Dugley's lecture. Five minutes passed before the professor set them free, and immediately, Sirius turned to him.

"Let me see it." He balked slightly at the demand. Honestly, one would've thought from his manners that Sirius' parents spoiled him rather than hating him. High-pitched, obnoxious giggles were coming from the Ravenclaw girls in front of them, distracting Sirius for a mo. He leaned back in his chair, and Sirius followed suit, glaring at him.

"I swear, the way you do this, it's like a bloody comparison between the Moontrimmer and the Silver Arrow - instead of going fast, you elect for the control being a bit slower offers you." Sirius said. He frowned.

"Haven't the foggiest what you mean, mate." He shrugged, wondering if they were going to get into a proper tiff right here in the middle of Defence. Sirius only shrugged though, refusing to state in clear terms what he meant.

A Slytherin girl near the front of the room was eyeing Lily, and Sirius' sudden statement - something about the Silver Arrow - wasn't enough to distract him from the fact that the girl caught Lily's attention.

"I was just trying to answer number three; I thought you might be of some help." He had no clue what the question was - he hadn't opened his book once - but the snide tone of her voice told him that she was making a joke about the photograph. What would be in a Defence textbook that related to snogging was beyond him, but everyone was sniggering regardless. Sirius was smiling and he glared at him before turning to face Lily as he realized that this would be the perfect opportunity for her to unleash - she hated being made fun of because of him. She turned towards him and raised a brow. He shrunk back a bit, bracing for it. 'It' never came, though.

"Do you know how to get back up, or are you perpetually stuck there?" Another Slytherin offered, and he nearly punched Sirius when a snort escaped him. The bell rang just then, saving his best mate from getting seven shades of shite beat out of him.

He tried to stay out of any conversations on the way out to the pitch. He ached to grab his broom and make laps when they got there - flying always helped him sort his thoughts. Instead, he stared at the baby dragon in the middle of the pitch's green as Lily stood silently beside him. He couldn't take being so close to her - he could feel the warmth radiating off of her, and Sirius' eyes boring into him from his other side made him strongly desire a mad dash to the castle, detention or no.

He was inching away from Lily, not paying attention to his surroundings, when her soft hand clasped over his own, raising them both high in the air. It took him a few moments after she let go to realize that she had volunteered them to take on the dragon together.

Frowning, he moved in front of the baby. Although it was young, it was very rash of her to volunteer them. No matter the beast's age, it was still a bloody _dragon_, and it was a class five wizard killer. She could be killed; he wondered if she fully grasped that concept as he stepped up to the dragon imposingly, trying to draw its full attention. Of course she realized it though, he knew that. She was the smartest witch in their year, probably in the whole of Hogwarts - just because she was muggleborn didn't make her clueless, and he chastised himself for ever thinking it. His mother would be ashamed if she knew he'd thought such a thing - she was a big supporter of muggleborns. Lily stunned the baby at that moment, and it slumped in a clear show of her talent. The whispers buzzed around them again as they returned to stand with his mates.

She was whispering with Remus, and if Moony thought he hadn't noticed that he'd pulled her away a bit, he was sorrily mistaken. He didn't turn to them, but he could feel Padfoot's eyes shift from himself to them and knew instinctively that he assumed Remus was telling her about the picture.

Although he'd been sure that she already knew last night, after Defence he couldn't help but wonder if she really did. Perhaps Sirius had been right to demand they not tell her about it - she really didn't seem to know. He himself had made no such promise, because he'd been sure she knew already, and what was the point if he were right? She huffed and stepped back to his side, further enforcing his thoughts. She wouldn't want to be anywhere near him if she knew about the photograph.

After some time and a few piteous attempts at mockery from a couple Slytherins he made a mental note to prank at a later date, the bell rang and they all headed off for their next class. This time, Lily lead the way, Moony at her side. She chose a seat in the far right corner of the classroom, and he frowned. She always liked to be front and center - Charms was her favorite class, and arguably the one she did best in. He settled into the seat behind her, forcing Padfoot and Wormtail to follow. He knew the snickers and jokes must be getting to her. Damn Sirius and his bloody picture. He sighed, not bothering to object when the boy in question began tossing wads of paper at Lily.

He pondered on his luck, both good and bad, as she and Moony turned 'round to join in their group. Of course, on the day that being near her made him nervous of an outburst at any second, they would end up in a group together. Any other day, when he felt the uncontrollable urge to flirt with her non-stop, she'd end up on the complete other side of the bloody room. Not today though, of course not. Fate hated him, he decided.

A rather boring hour ensued, the only truly interesting thing being Sirius, rather harried, ducking more than once out of the way of his earth-moving charms. He amused himself with this, trying to distract himself first from the frown on Lily's pink lips, then later from the sudden gleam in her eyes. It was rather mischievous, something he'd expect from Sirius rather than her. The bell signaling lunch roused him from his failed attempt to ignore the glint.

He assumed, when she stopped at the Great Hall's towering doors, that she was waiting for Hestia to catch up with her. However, she continued walking before he saw Jones, and he couldn't help but stare as she settled herself into the seat next to him. She simply ignored him and the whispers spreading through the Great Hall, gathering her munch. He blushed when she sent a glance at him that could only be described as flirtatious, wondering how she did things like that without even knowing. He turned to his plateful.

"So, how's your day been?" Her question left him wondering if he'd missed something - actually, everything that had happened since she'd walked through those doors left him wondering if he'd missed something. He answered with the only thing he could come up with. Thankfully, they'd just come from Charms.

"Ah, good? The dragon thing was fairly bonkers, and I'm not really getting the _incendium_ charm, but otherwise... Good." He lied. Well, he was telling the truth about the dragon thing(Pads always said a lie was better swallowed with a teaspoon of the truth).

"You aren't getting the fire charms? Why weren't you practicing in class, James?" Her use of his name distracted him slightly from the fact that she had, indeed, accepted the lie. He stuttered, trying to conjure an acceptable answer. Hestia saved him, taking a seat beside her mate.

"I suppose he doesn't want to look like an idiot in your favorite class, Lils." It would've been true, if the lie had been true in the first place. The only reason he hadn't been using them in class was because throwing earth charms at his tosser of a best mate was a much better waste of time. Lily frowned at Jones before turning back to him.

"That can't be true though, Hes. Everyone knows that he's brilliant when it comes to Charms. I mean, he's not performing muggle pranks, now is he?" She smiled as Hestia snorted, and he smirked a bit. He hadn't realized that she'd have thought that. It was as near to a compliment as he could ever remember getting from her.

"Anyhow, I think that particular spell was one of the more difficult ones, so it's not that surprising that you're having difficulty." There was a pause as she took out her wand.

"It's like this." She demonstrated the motion elegantly, perfectly executing a dainty slash at the end. He reached for his own wand as she did it again. He should've lied about something else; now he had to botch his own spells. He could feel Remus' amused gaze on him - they'd been playing with the charm just last night. She was watching him expectantly though, so he rushed through a pathetic wand movement he was ashamed to make.

"No, no. See, watch me again. Watch the way the wand moves." Wondering how fast he could improve without her catching on, he watched her. The way her wand seemed to be a part of her was, to him, the most beautiful thing in the world - aside from Lily herself, of course. He tweaked his motion, but kept a rather harsh chop that reminded him of a beater swinging at a bludger.

"Here." She said, surprising him by grasping his upper arm and turning him to face Sirius. Once she had him situated, she grasped his hand lightly, her soft fingers rubbing gently over his skin.

"Now just let me do the moving." He forced himself to relax, to let her take control. She showed him the proper way to move his wand, and he found himself lost in the feel of her against him. Merlin, how he wished this was real. No one could understand just how deep his love for her ran - it was a need, honestly, and it consumed him every second of the day. Thoughts of what he'd do after Hogwarts petrified him - he couldn't think about a life without her. Dazed by his thoughts, he expertly twirled and slashed his wand.

"Excellent!" She commended him. He couldn't help the smile that sprang to his face at her joy.

"Yes, yes. Now that you've shown off your teaching expertise, can we all go back to eating? I'm bloody starving." He took Hestia's hint for what it was - Sirius was watching Lily with that mischievous look in his eye again. Before he could say anything though, Lily cut him off.

"Nobody asked you to stop eating for this, Hestia. Now, how are you pronouncing it, James?" She snapped at her mate, but her soft voice directed at him easily drew his attention from any thoughts of Padfoot. He tried to ignore the tone of her voice, instead focusing on the words. He botched the incantation in reply.

"A bit harsher, like you were doing with the slash." He said it properly this time, and noted that she was staring at him. She blinked before responding, and he wondered what she'd been thinking.

"Very good. Now put them together. Make sure your intent isn't to set the whole table on fire." He cast his eyes about for something that he could safely demonstrate his prowess on. They landed on Sirius, who was snorting in quiet amusement. He raised a brow. After all, Sirius himself had put it in the Marauder Code that if the mate deserved it... He set Sirius' toast alight, but only briefly found amusement in his mate's frantic face. Lily was laughing on his other side. His whole body froze as the sound washed over him. She was actually _laughing_ at something he'd done. Her laugh was infectious though, and he soon found himself laughing boisterously at Si, slapping him on the back.

Once they all calmed down and the riled Hufflepuff boys sat back down, the rest of lunch was rather lackluster in comparison. He almost took off Pete's head when his pumpkin juice nearly spilt all over Lily, but she only brushed it off, flicking her wand to clear the mess. He knew that Pads' attention was temporarily on Hestia, who was throwing bread crumbs at the Hufflepuffs, and so he allowed himself to get distracted by Lily, who was spontaneously laughing. Her face was so beautiful, scrunched up in amusement. When the bell rang, he led the way to Advanced Transfiguration, Lily and the other Marauders following close behind.

He pulled Pete to the side when they reached the class, feigning a short conversation as Lily took her seat. He plopped himself down beside her while Sirius sat next to him and Remus took the seat on the other end of the table. Peter slid into the table behind them, and James diverted his attention, trying to seem nonchalant. She couldn't know that he'd sat here simply to be near her, or she'd never sit before he did again. He noted the skeptical look from McGonagall - although he and Sirius were without a doubt her best students, they never sat in the front row.

Lily was talking to the professor about working at the Ministry, which reminded him of the man his dad had mentioned in his last letter, who'd transfigured a chair into a hare, or some other garden-variety animal. The idea seemed tricky and challenging. He sent a surreptitious glance to McGonagall before flicking his wand at her chair. It morphed into a giant green frog quickly and quietly, and he lowered his wand before she noticed. Not that difficult.

As Jason Emmings, a Ravenclaw, walked in and burst into laughter at the sight of the hopping thing, he noted that Lily was staring at it as well. She looked somewhat awed, he noticed with pride. She'd never admit to it, but at least he would know that she'd thought it. Professor McGonagall transfigured it back, glaring at him, but he noticed the spark of pride and the slight upturn of her stoic demeanor. He smirked as Sirius thumped him on the arm.

Class started promptly, and he rolled his sleeves up while McGonagall lectured about the day's activities. He knew that he'd be bored by the lesson before they were even set loose - Professor McGonagall's approach to teaching left him feeling rather unchallenged in the subject, always repeating things he'd mastered the first time, years ago. It lead to quite a bit of goofing off, but today he soothed himself with racing to transfigure the most toy mice with Sirius.

About 30 minutes later, he was in the lead when Lily reached across him to grasp his wand arm. He stared at her, alternately wondering what she was doing and marveling at the feel of her soft fingers on the skin of his bared forearm. He elbowed Pads in the side when he noticed McGonagall's alarmed face at the state of their desk - it was piled with toy mice of all varieties. They worked fast to transfigure all the mice back to the thimbles they'd originally been.

Once the desk was cleared, he found himself distracted again by Lily - her hair was flowing over the shoulder closest to him, close enough for him to catch the scent of vanilla and strawberries. He guessed it must've been her shampoo and took another whiff before she flipped the hair over her shoulder and laid her head gently on the desk. His eyes skittered away when she looked up at him.

"Where did you learn to do that?" His eyes flicked right back to her as she nodded to Professor McGonagall's chair. He shrugged.

"Dad was saying something about how someone in his department had done it and it'd gone wild - the animal, that is. I think it was a hare, though. But it didn't seem like it could be that hard." He explained, shrugging again. He noticed she was staring at him with an incredulous expression before she shook her head, rolling her eyes.

"What?" He questioned; this girl could drive him mad with the slightest gestures.

"You... You're really brilliant, aren't you?" He could feel his cheeks heating as he stared at her for a few moments before he turned to stare out the window. She thought he was brilliant? The thought left him speechless, in awe. She'd told him she thought he was _brilliant_. She'd looked embarassed afterwards, and she had obviously not meant to say it, but still... Brilliant. Lily Evans thought he was brilliant. He couldn't concentrate on anything for the rest of the hour, and only mumbled vague responses to Sirius when he questioned him - James wasn't even sure what he'd asked. He could feel her eyes on him, but he knew that if he made eye contact with her, he'd just blush again, and she'd probably just look away anyways. He smiled. She thought he was _brilliant_.

The bell rang, signaling that they were heading down to Advanced Potions. He frowned, following Lily's slim figure down the stairs into the dank, cool dungeons. The only reason he was taking this class was because Lily liked it - she was surprisingly talented at it. However, Snivellus was also in the class, and after what'd happened last year with him and Lily, he'd been unwilling to leave her alone with the greasy git. Over half of the class was Slytherins and they were the only Gryffindors, indicating that his choice had been a wise one. After everything Mullciber had already tried this year, it was clear that she would've befallen some unfortunate fate had they not been there. Besides, Wormtail was quite ace in Potions, something that surprised them all.

Professor Slughorn smiled at them in greeting and he tossed a flippant smile back - he really didn't give one hoot for Slughorn's invitations to his 'Slug Club.' He only wanted James in it because of his family. It was no secret that the Potters were steeped in old pureblood wealth, and his parents were high-ranking Aurors.

The short span of time in which he contemplated this allowed Sirius to push past him and steal into the seat next to Lily. He frowned nervously - this wasn't good. He took the seat next to Si, determined to stop him from any shenanigans. He was vaguely aware of Pete sitting on Remus' other side, filling out the desk so nobody could encroach on their space. A pair of Ravenclaws sat with a pair of Hufflepuffs behind them, and he thanked Merlin that he wouldn't have to worry about what was coming from behind today. He really needed to focus on Sirius.

Slughorn announced that they'd be brewing Amortentia today and summoned some special cauldrons for them from the other room. James shook his robes off onto the back of his seat as Sirius went to the store cupboard to get the ingredients they'd need. He pulled Advanced Potion Making out of his bag and opened to the directions for Amortentia, letting the book fall open on his desk while he waited for Si to get back, arms full of ingredients. Sirius was oddly quiet as they chopped and pulverised some herbs, and they silently followed the instructions to the letter, ignoring the rest of the class. Suddenly, a gravelly voice spoke from across the classroom, and he noticed that Slughorn was nowhere in sight.

"Needing a little extra help from the Marauders today, are we Evans? Gotten a bit _closer_ with them recently?" Mullciber insulted. Lily's shoulders tensed a bit and she turned slowly to face the Slytherin as his housemates hooted in amusement. He glared at them. He couldn't see Lily's face, but he could hear the cold, aloof edge of her voice when she spoke, and he was proud that she didn't show any sign of weakness.

"In case you hadn't noticed, Mullciber, the boys are still working in their pairs, and I am still working alone. Meanwhile, you are still allowing Avery to do all the work for you, so your lack of any particular talent, let alone in Potions, has me wondering why you think you have the upper hand here." Before anyone else could join in in Lily's defence, Scilla Dragomir, one of the suddenly-quiet Slytherins, replied.

"Oh please. Your friend Sirius waving that picture around gives us all the 'upper hand' we need. I mean, if you're going to _lower_ yourself that way..." He glared at Si, who was suddenly looking at him, as though he could sense his rage.

"I _told_ you Pads! What the bloody hell are we going to do now? Even the Slytherins know, and now they're using it against her. Merlin, Si, if you don't fix this somehow, I swear on Godric Gryffindor-" But Sirius cut him off before he could finish.

"Oh, calm your bloody dragons, mate. Evans can hold her own against them. She's probably not even bothered by it." He flippantly responded, blowing it off like he did everything.

"_Pads_." He stressed. "You saw her talking to Remus in Care of Magical Creatures, I know it. She knows something is up, and she's not just going to bloody well ignore it - she's _Evans_, you know she won't stand for that." He replied, demanding him to take the situation seriously - no pun intended.

"I _told_ you, it's all sorted. Don't worry Prongs, everything'll be great, and-" He was cut off by a snippy statement from Lily.

"You'll want to pay attention to your potion Black, it's never going to get a passing grade at the rate you're going." They turned their attention to the potion, noticing that it's had turned a greenish yellow color and was begin to thicken. Quickly, he grabbed the glass stirring stick and went to work on fixing up the potion. He glared at Sirius, who was ignoring a glare from Lily, too. Professor Slughorn returned just then, though, and the class stayed well in hand after that.

As the hour drew to an end, Professor Slughorn came around to their cauldrons, tapping each after he graded them, causing the contents to vanish. They received rather impressive remarks, considering the rough start they'd had. He shoved his textbook back into his bag as the bell rang and threw his robes over his arm as he made his way out of the room. The boys followed Lily back up the stairs, the air getting warmer and crisper as they went. They climbed up to Gryffindor tower, he and Sirius bickering all the way about Lily and the picture.

Padfoot rousted a couple of first years from their place by the fire and flopped somehow gracefully into a chair. James sat himself next to Remus and Peter on the over-large sofa, dropping his things at the side of it. Lily trailed up the stairs to her dormitory and he sat in silence with his mates. It was probably the most peaceful time he'd had all day, and he was suddenly roused from his drifting thoughts a few minutes later by someone sitting in the small space on his right. He glanced just long enough to catch sight of the hair, and, realizing it was Lily, looked away. He still couldn't believe that she thought he was brilliant.

"What? I'm waiting for Hestia to get back from Ancient Runes." She suddenly said, and he glanced at her to see that she was glaring at Sirius, who was smirking at her.

"Oh please, don't bother trying to hide it - you just wanna get up close and personal with Prongs, here." He replied, nodding towards James. He frowned back at him, but Si didn't take his eyes off of Lily, who'd drawn herself up a bit when everyone within hearing distance turned to stare.

"I'll make sure to tell Alice that you're making sexual innuendos in front of young, impressionable minds. I wonder how many points she'll be forced to deduct?" She retorted stingingly, and he frowned. They really didn't need any more points deducted after McGonagall this morning. Pete, ever the one to blow Padfoot's cover, replied.

"Augh, please don't Lily. Fifty points were already deducted when McGonagall saw Sirius..." He nearly finished telling her what had happened at breakfast, but Remus strategically fell on top of the boy, elbowing him in the gut. Lily's eyes still bulged though, before they narrowed and turned to him. He couldn't resist the urge to scoot away. He turned his eyes away, hoping that she would direct her attention back to Sirius. After a moment, she sighed.

"What did you do now?" She questioned. He shrank further away, his eyes meeting hers once more. The words spewed out like someone had used Veritaserum on him.

"Me? It wasn't me, I didn't do anything. It just happened, I swear, I don't know..." Remus coughed and he snapped his mouth shut at the hint, darting his eyes away again. She sighed and blew some hair out of her face, and he couldn't help but wonder what she was thinking now. After a moment, she sighed once more.

"Potter?" His eyes flicked back to her; he couldn't stop them if he wanted to. He just barely held himself back from flinching away.

"Couldyouteachmetorideabroom?" He nearly didn't understand, but the words 'teach' and 'broom' were all he really needed to comprehend what she was asking. His terror disappeared, surprise taking its place. Lily hated flying, she was terrified of it. She continued before he could say anything.

"Umm, I mean, it doesn't have to be right now, we could do it later this week, or I mean, I understand if you don't want to do it at all, it's not like I could pay you or anything, it's just that I'm a rubbish flyer and..." Her voice trailed off, and he only realized just then that she was being quiet so the other nosy Gryffindors couldn't overhear their conversation. He jumped at the opportunity.

"N-no! You don't have to pay me or anything Evans. And um, we could do it now, if that's what you want, but uh... I thought you were waiting for Hestia, weren't you? It's really whatever you want, though..." He was shocked that she thought she'd need to pay him. He would _never_ make her pay for anything - honestly, what kind of bloke did she think he was? A little voice in the back of his mind, which was getting louder as it really sank in that Lily was asking him for flying lessons, reminded him of Transfiguration. She smiled at him, stalling all thought. He blinked.

"Oh it's fine, I mean, Sirius could always tell Hestia were we went. And, umm, are you sure you'll do this for nothing? I know Bobby Yorkson paid you twelve galleons last year to do it..." She dismissed his worry. He would've frowned at her renewed reference to paying him, except he remembered the incident with Bobby. He smirked. The whole debacle had drawn them into aquaintance with each other - they were rather well off together, when it wasn't Quidditch season.

"Yeah, but two weeks later he woke up to suspiciously find twenty galleons in his shoes." He laughed, remembering Bobby's reaction when he told him to keep the extra. Lily stared at him, her brow furrowing cutely in confusion.

"But... He only gave you twelve galleons!" She protested. He laughed again, even as he noticed that the sky was warming, the sun sinking closer towards the ground every second.

"Well, I know that, of course. But, the lessons made him good enough to make it onto the Hufflepuff team, and the team was better for it, so I decided to pay him back. It's not like he squandered the lessons, like most people do. Now, are we going to sit here talking about Yorkson all afternoon, or did you want to fly before the sun goes down?" He held his hand out to her as he stood, hoping for another touch, no matter how brief. She smiled up at him, taking the hand. Her head twitched toward Padfoot as she let go, and he noted that the boy was frowning unhappily. Well, that was just too bloody bad. Something was going right today, and he wasn't about to let Pads ruin it for him.

He led the way out of the castle and down to the pitch, eager to get started. They wouldn't have much time for this tonight. He went straight to the broom shed, handing her a school broom and grabbing one for himself. It wouldn't even compare to his Silver Arrow, but there was nothing to be done for it. He quickly lead her onto the pitch and away from the structure of the stands - it would prove disastrous to have someone so new to flying so close to things to slam into. He turned to face her when he deemed they were far enough away.

"We'll start off slow, since you never fly. Um, you can get on it now." He intructed. He noted with ungallant pleasure that her skirt inched up on her thighs as she tossed a leg over the broom. He distracted himself by correcting her grip. After making sure she had a firm hold of the broom and clear intent in her mind, he instructed her to push off. She hovered, and he hopped on his own broom, pulling a face at the slow reaction. He really hated the school's brooms, and longed for his own, which rested up in his dormitory.

"Now, you'll want to lean forward a slight bit to move. _Just_ a little. If you hunker down to the broom... Well, nothing will happen, since you're on one of the school's rusty old brooms, but on any worthy broom, you'd shoot off. Now, lean forward, then come right back up." He directed his full attention to her, assuring himself that he'd catch her if something went wrong. She nodded and did as he'd directed. Though she was doing well so far, he heard the nervous breath she took in and slowly let out. He smiled at her - she really was adorable.

"So, what's a _worthy_ broom, in your expert opinion?" There was a quiver in her voice that belied her nerves, though he could tell she was putting in a serious effort to be genuine about this. He blinked. She'd never asked his opinion on anything before.

"Ah... Anything new, really. The Moontrimmers are probably the bottom rung, anything newer gets better by the year, and the Silver Arrows are the best." He could feel a smile rise on his face at the thought of his broom. She smiled back at him, a breathtaking sight in the warmth of the late afternoon light.

"Isn't that the type of broom you have? The Silver Arrow, I mean?" His smile grew - she knew what kind of broom he rode? He'd never stop being surprised by her. It seemed she was an entirely different person today, chatting him up amiably and giving him insight he'd never known existed.

"Yeah. It's a bloody _amazing_ broom." He replied, barely thinking about it. He was too distracted, wondering if there was _any_ way he could convince her that he wasn't all that bad. But then, maybe it wouldn't be so difficult - she had, after all, admitted that he was brilliant earlier.

"Is it? I always thought they were all the same." It was clearly a question, but he could hardly help staring at her in incredulity. All the same? No two racing brooms were in any way similar. But oh, this could be the perfect opportunity, if he played it right...

"Really Lily, don't you know anything about flying? I'd have thought that living with Marlene would teach you better. Not to worry, I'll show you." He whipped out his wand and summoned his broom from the dorms, noting her nervous look. He hopped off the one he was on, setting it down. He grasped the fine wood of his own broom in his hands when it arrived, offering it up to her so she could see the difference.

"She's just been cleaned." He said, waving her over. Instead of getting down like he'd assumed she would, she flew over, her nerves obviously back even though it was only a short distance. His mind was nearly wiped by the smile she gave him. Really, she ought to keep those in check - they could cause accidents.

"Well, what are you doing, get down here." He told her, and she seemed confused.

"What?" She questioned in reply. Obviously, she hadn't caught onto his plan. Which was probably a good thing, as he was sure she'd have seen right through it.

"I'm gonna take you for a ride, obviously. How else are you supposed to see the difference you daft thing?" He smiled at her, trying to seem nonchalant. As long as he acted like he didn't have an ulterior motive, she probably wouldn't notice anything. He noticed the blank look on her face before she shook her head slightly, hopping off the broom as he had. Her skirt flew up, but she batted it down before he could see anything more than the pale skin of her upper thighs. He straddled his broom, trying to pretend he hadn't noticed for her sake - he was certain she wouldn't appreciate him ogling her. She set her broom down next to the other discarded one before turning her blushing face to him.

"Ahh... Can you even fly two at a time on a broom? Isn't that dangerous?" Her brow frowned with the weight of her obvious nerves. He attempted to placate her.

"Obviously you can, or I wouldn't be taking you. Really, do you think I'd endanger you, Evans? It's all about the skill of the person flying, which is why _I'm_ the one flying us. Now come here, you need to get situated." He couldn't help the slight arrogant air he affected - he knew she hated it, but really. Did she honestly think he'd do anything that could hurt her? She frowned at him.

"Ahh... Where?" He held in a sigh - should've known they'd come to this snag. She was never keen on being close to him; what had made him think this would be any different? He shuffled forward a bit, but he knew there wasn't much he could do in means of extra space.

"Right behind me. Mind you, you'll have to stick close, but I really don't bite, Evans." He smiled at her again, trying to lull her into accepting it. Regardless, he was shocked when she stepped up behind him, close enough that he could feel her warmth, and tossed her leg over the broomstick.

She stayed where she was for a moment, not seeming to notice his gaze. After a few seconds though, she looked up and gave him a nervous smile before scooting closer and fitting her arms around his waist, linking her hands in the front. He turned to face forward, unable to hold back the smile that came to his face. It just felt so _right_ to have her arms around him.

Her arms tightened into a vice grip when he kicked off, shooting them high into the sky. She loosened the grip after he stopped, leaving them hovering with a beautiful view of the grounds. He took a breath, preparing himself for her response, smiling nonetheless.

"See? Getting close to me isn't so bad, is it? Not when you get to see things like this." He could feel her posture change, and his muscles tightened, almost as though he thought she were going to physically hit him.

"Well, yes, I suppose. But I don't know if a magnificent view of the Hogwarts grounds is exactly enough to risk everyone in the school jeering at me. By the way, you wouldn't happen to know what that's all about, would you James?" The reaction was not what he'd expected, and he craned his neck just to make sure it was still Lily behind him.

Her eyes were wide and guileless, mouth slightly puckered. He knew he couldn't lie to her, especially when she looked at him like that. She was expecting the truth, and by Merlin, he'd give it to her. Pads would probably kill him, but there was nothing for it.

"I mean, Remus kept trying to tell me it had something to do with you two, but I just can't think you'd do anything _truly_ embarrassing to me." Of course he wouldn't! Her eyelids flickered, and he knew the deal was sealed. Honestly, nobody should be allowed to have eyes like hers. They could send wizards to war. The broom dropped a bit in his anxiety - though he knew he couldn't resist giving her anything she wanted, Pads didn't feel the same way. He bit back a woeful sigh.

"It's Sirius." He admitted, telling himself that it wasn't really betraying his mate. At least, before he remembered how furious he'd been with Si last night for this whole ordeal. If it weren't for him, this wouldn't be happening. Either way, he didn't need Sirius coming after him after she found out. He set the broom towards the ground.

"But don't tell him I told you! Just... I dunno, you found out from some random Hufflepuff, okay? At least, if he asks - don't offer the information up, or anything." Lily sighed as they touched down on the pitch. They dismounted in silence and even through all the other thoughts in his head, he noticed that her arms seemed reluctant to unravel from their place on his waist.

"So... What exactly is it that Sirius did?" He looked at her, and before he could stop himself, dug into his pocket to retrieve the folded photograph. He handed it to her and moved to the broom shed. She was likely to be furious when she saw it, and when Lily was furious, things tended to explode. His shoulders tensed as he put the school broom away; any minute now...

When she didn't respond, he chanced a glance over his shoulder at her, before turning around in confusion. She was just... staring at it. She seemed bemused, and he knew why. She probably didn't know what to do with herself, looking at the miniature versions of themselves snogging. He was sure, though, that the rage would come any second now. She would flick her hair back and step up to him, looking up at him with fury in those emerald eyes.

She didn't move though, for over half a minute, and he shifted. This wasn't normal. She didn't normally stop to think about these types of things. If he showed her something or did something that upset her, she jumped on the chance to yell at him. His yelling back probably didn't help, but he couldn't help it - it was his only interaction with her. Besides, it was damn fun. She was probably the only bird in this school who could match wits with him, even on a bad day. Finally, though, he couldn't take it anymore, and moved in closer.

"Evans? Evans... Lily, are you okay?" She blinked, and he was relieved to get some sort of reaction out of her - he'd been beginning to wonder if someone had put a Body-Bind hex on her. She looked up at him, obvious shock in her eyes. She looked back down at the picture in her hands.

"Lily, you've been staring at it for five minutes, please say something." Someone must've slipped him Felix Felicis, because instead of yelling at him... She started laughing. She doubled over with the force of it, really. Her guffaws would've been enough to make him laugh in any other situation, but they were rather unnerving in just this moment.

"Lily?" He didn't know what to do - he'd never been in a situation like this with her before.

"It... It's fine... Really." She gasped out between chuckles. He shifted his weight nervously, running a hand through his hair as her gasps slowed and she reeled her control in. Eventually, she was standing and breathing normally. He gingerly took the photograph when she offered it, noting that the picture versions of them were indeed still snogging. Godric, did they even stop for breath? He wondered idly if the people in photos breathed before she spoke.

"Is that what you were so nervous about?" She was smiling at him, but he could feel the frown he gave back. Really, she wasn't being herself today. What was going on?

"Well... Yeah, I assumed. Um, y'know, that you'd think I caused it to happen, or something. Are you sure you're okay with this?" Instead of answering, she took her broom to the shed and shut the door after replacing it. She headed up the school lawns and he suddenly wondered why he'd been complaining - if she was talking to him, then there wasn't really a problem. He tried to get her to answer. He didn't know what he'd do if she didn't answer the question.

"I mean, I understand of course if you don't want to talk to me, but honestly Evans, it was Sirius. I'd swear by it. Hell, I'll even get Remus and Pete to swear to it! I honestly didn't do anything to the photo, no one did. It was just like that yesterday evening when Sirius found it, and he started waving it around to anyone who'd look. I didn't even know he was doing it, I swear. I would've stopped him, I know how you hate to be embarrassed like that, and I'd never do that to you. You know how I feel about you, what would upsetting you with something like this really accomplish?" His hand flew up to his hair and he tugged on it in frustration. She didn't even look like she was listening to him. He had to resolve this, though.

"C'mon Lily, I-" Suddenly, he was cut off. He would swear to anyone and everyone that her lips had to be the softest in the world. His eyes opened wide, and he noticed that she was staring up at him. She pulled away far too soon, and his fingers itched to grasp her and pull her back into that perfect moment. Suddenly, she took off through the doors that opened onto the entrance hall of the castle. The sun was setting behind him, but he didn't even notice the encroaching darkness, though fires lit in the giant sconces on the side of the doors.

Lily had just kissed him. _Lily_ had kissed _him_. His world was upside down, and he set off to Gryffindor tower, a wide smile plastered on his face. He felt like he could fly - without the broom, even.

"Pads, I could kiss you!" He announced loudly as he slammed the door to their dorm behind him. He tossed his broom onto his bed(easily the most careless thing he'd ever done with it) and dived onto the mate in question's bed. Sirius looked down at him skeptically.

"Hestia's in." Was all he said. James had no clue what he was talking about and he didn't give one bloody hoot.

"Sirius, I'll never doubt you again. Anything you wanna do for the next week, so long as it won't upset Lily - I'm in, all for it really. You wanna sneak into the Prefects' Bath? I'll get the password for us. You wanna kick Mrs. Norris and run like hell? I'll do it with you, and I won't even try to get myself out of detention and leave you there. I'll help nick from Slughorn's stores..." He was well aware that he was babbling, but he couldn't help it. Si had been right! It'd worked, by Merlin!

"What the bloody hell are you on about, you two-knut prat?" The other boy mumbled something about leaving him for Evans, but James was already opening his mouth to answer.

"She bloody kissed me!" He announced. Moony and Wormtail, who'd been watching them, amused, stared in confusion. Even Pads stared at him for a moment before rolling his eyes.

"I bloody well know that, you ponce. _I'm_ the one who found the photo, if you remember-" He cut him off.

"_Not_ in the picture, you tosspot. _Lily_ kissed me!" He announced, looking up at his best mate.

"_Lily!_" He repeated overzealously.

The boys were staring at him, in shock this time. Padfoot was the first to recover, and the smirk that grew on his face would've done any Marauder proud.

"Told you it would work, didn't I? Didn't I say not to worry? It all sorted itself out just like I knew it would." He looked down at James. Pete was still staring in shock, but Remus started chuckling quietly, shaking his head at their antics.

"It was all thanks to Moony, really. You know he's the closest of all of us to Evans, and he admitted to me that she watches you all the time. Sure, everyone thinks it's because she's trying to catch you in a prank - as though we would execute one so obviously - but I knew there had to be more to it." He said. James was giddy with delight, not even mad that they hadn't told him these things in the beginning. He hung his head over the edge of the bed, his glasses nearly sliding off.

"She kissed me." He mused. Si laughed above him.

"Of course she ruddy well did. She bleeding fancies you, mate." He smiled.

"Now, about nicking from Ol' Sluggy's stores..." James wasn't even paying attention anymore.

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><p>AN: Aww, I hope you guys loved it. I feel so close to this story, and I have no idea why. I'm sad this is the end, but I'll always write more LilyJames. If you liked this, go check out more of my stuff. For now au revoir, and review please!


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